What are the major suppliers of US cotton textile and apparel imports?

In recent years, the international trade environment was complicated and volatile. Since last year, the United States began to impose sanctions over China Xinjiang cotton. Recently, it has been reported that the United States customs began to check China's cotton products. When exporting to the United States, the following information needed to be provided: purchase invoice, certificate of origin and declaration of noncompulsory labor importers. 100% inspection! This news once again got market participants worried. The proportion of China's cotton textile and apparel export value was not small, accounting for more than 22%, and the proportion has slightly dropped in recent years.

Note: major cotton textiles and apparels include cotton yarn, cotton fabric, cotton knitted and woven garments, and home textiles are not included.

Major cotton textiles and apparels export value showed downward in recent years, and the annual export value dropped from 75.5 billion USD in 2015 to 61 billion USD in 2019. In 2020, COVID-19 pandemic soured the value. On the one hand, China's masked epidemic prevention textile and apparel exports appeared to be responsible for a large part. On the other hand, the epidemic affected the trade circulation in China and the world. In general, last year was a special year. This year, COVID-19 in the United States has been controlled with the spread of vaccines. However, the Sino-US trade conflict and the US sanctions against Xinjiang under the pretext of human rights will have a certain impact on the export of cotton textile and apparel in China. The recent news has once again attracted market attention.

The United States imported 45-47 billion USD worth of cotton textiles and apparel per year. In 2020, due to the epidemic situation, import moved down sharply. Which regions can provide such a large amount? What role does China play in this?

No matter the proportion of volume or value, the trend is similar, which reached a new high in 2012, and the proportion of cotton textiles and apparel imported by the United States accounted for more than 33% of the total import of cotton textiles and apparel, and then it gradually declined. After the beginning of the trade war in 2018, the proportion dropped evidently to less than 20%. While the import proportion of cotton textiles and apparel from China is declining, which markets are increasing?

India, ASEAN, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the main competitive regions. In recent years, China's share of cotton textile and apparel import market in the United States has gradually declined, while ASEAN, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were gradually rising. Measured by value, more than 80% of the US cotton textile and apparel imports came from the above five regions, and the proportion in Jan-Feb 2021 rose to 85%. If the United States prohibits cotton fabrics containing Xinjiang cotton to enter the U.S. market, it will not only affect China's direct exports, but also the ASEAN and Bangladesh. The main apparel exporters in ASEAN are Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia where lack a complete textile and apparel industry chain and have a high dependence on intermediate links and feedstock imports. However, China is one of the main sources of semi-finished products. Moreover, RCEP agreement is playing a role, which boosts China's textile and apparel export.

According to the latest data, in the first quarter of this year, China's imports and exports to the other 14 RCEP member countries totaled 2.67 trillion yuan, up 22.9%year-on-year, accounting for 31.5% of the total value of China's foreign trade imports and exports. Among them, exports reached 1.25 trillion yuan, up 27.5%; Imports reached 1.42 trillion yuan, up 19%. Among the major members, imports and exports to ASEAN, Japan and South Korea rose by 26.1%, 20.8% and 19.5% respectively. In matters of export commodities, the export of mechanical and electrical products reached 659.85 billion yuan, up 28.7%, accounting for 53% of the total export value to RCEP member countries. Among them, 72.68 billion yuan was for integrated circuits, and 65.09 billion yuan was for automatic data processing equipment and its parts, up 2.4% and 25% respectively. Exports of textiles and apparel moved up by 27.9%. In terms of imported commodities, the import of integrated circuits was 262.47 billion yuan, up 11.2%; Iron ore amounted to 164.79 billion yuan, up 62.8%; Consumer goods reached 121.2 billion yuan, up 10.1%; Automatic data processing equipment and its parts were 42.95 billion yuan, up 20.2%; Plastic in primary shape was 41.71 billion yuan, up 27.3%.